T.X. Watson's Blog-shaped Thing

The new "Idea Channel" is about trigger warnings in college curricula, and I'm really fond of it. I'm glad (not surprised) that Mike is on the side of trigger warnings as enabling discussion, not stifling it.

Particularly, I'm glad he addressed the point about exposure therapy being a specific, complex, highly controlled and very painful psychological process undergone with the guidance of professional mental health workers, not just "throw it at 'em, they'll feel better after." The reality is that being unexpectedly exposed to a trigger is likely to make the trauma worse -- it reinforces the brain's habitual response that the trigger is connected to heightened, painful emotional states. Being able to prepare for this by way of trigger warnings, and make informed decisions about what one can and can't handle, is actually much more compatible with exposure therapy than refusing to give warnings would be.